RECOGNITION AND REWARDS AT THE AFI UK FENCING AWARDS

Events
Fencing News Blog
14th December 2022
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The first National AFI Awards were held this October at the prestigious Twickenham Stadium, the official home of England Rugby.

For anyone who isn’t au fait with this organisation, the AFI represents its members across the UK fencing industry, promoting safety, quality and professionalism, ensuring members are kept up to date with industry news, technical information, and business opportunities available within its network. The AFI has a stringent entry criteria and a professional Code of Practice, that members are expected to adhere to and one of their many aims is to represent members’ interests on the British Standards Institute’s B/201 (Fencing Standards) committee, the National Highways Sectors Scheme committees and the FISS/CSCS committee. In addition, it has strong links with other industry bodies and associations, e.g. Build UK, CHAS, Construction Line and CSCS. (If you want to know more about joining visit: www.afiorg.uk)

According to one of the previous AFI Chairmans John Smith of Versco, it’s three years or more since the Association of Fencing Industries has brought members of the Fencing world together for an actual ‘physical’ gathering, with one of the main reasons for this hiatus in the last couple obviously being due to the Covid pandemic.

Ex-CEO Ian Ripley, another previous member of the AFI Management Board, which consists of elected representatives from member companies, explained how the idea of having a National Awards event to celebrate the excellence and achievements of those involved in the world of fencing, came about.

“The AFI are keen to highlight the important work members of the industry do in the many diverse areas of the fencing sector which encompasses contractors, distributors, and manufacturers. Fencers are often overlooked with little attention being paid to the skills and ingenuity they exhibit throughout their professional activities, so this inaugural event is hopefully just the beginning of further awards in years to come.” Ripley continued, “Cameron Glanvill, who was Chairman for the past three years until recently, was the driving force behind taking the idea of the awards from a dream into reality, and it is down to his hard work and determination that we are here now enjoying this day.”

And a very enjoyable day it was too, with an informative behind-the-scenes tour of Twickenham Stadium, accompanied by an expert guide who was a veritable font of knowledge regarding the history of the stadium and England Rugby, including a peek at the home team and visitors’ dressing rooms, a definite treat for anyone keen on the sport or who just likes that sort of thing. Nominees and guests were also treated to a three-course lunch, and entertainment in the shape of Kyran Bracken, ex-rugby professional, TV presenter, and ‘dancing on ice’ celebrity winner in 2007, who spoke with humour and enthusiasm about his life and his illustrious career before presenting the awards to the winners alongside current AFI Chairman, Chris Hackett.

Many well-known names in the fencing industry were amongst the eighteen shortlisted in the six award categories, and there were also some less familiar names too, which is encouraging and indicates there’s hope of fresh blood coming through to re-energise and challenge the big boys for their share of the market and some well-deserved recognition.

Pete Clark, who is the current CEO of the AFI had this to say, “Fencing is one of the highest-skilled sectors of the construction industry, there is a commonly held misconception that we are just ‘hole diggers’ and I feel it is time we raised the profile of the individuals, companies and the whole industry to the market place. The awards are our way of doing this, if we don’t do it no one will. The finalists have shown skill, ingenuity, talent and commitment to the industry that highlights the great achievements within the diverse sector that is fencing. We should also say a big thanks to the sponsors, who have shown their commitment to the industry, without their help and support we couldn’t have held this inaugural awards event. It’s hoped that this will be the first of many more to come and we look forward to making this bigger and better in years to come.”

It was a very well-organised and enjoyable event, with excellent information and communication provided by Jennifer Shail of the AFI, who seemed to think of everything and took the guesswork out of everything, like how to get there and where to park. Many thanks to her and the rest of the AFI management team for putting on a great event, which is the first of many more to come we hope.

www.afiorg.uk